11.16.2012

What’s Not Happening?

She meant, of course, “prevent from happening.” But she could also have said simply "avoid.”

There’s a tendency for politicians to use more words than they need to, perhaps because they often want to avoid excessive clarity. They have a tendency to use a lot of passive verbs and other language techniques that obscure who is responsible for action. Grammatically, “avoid” is an active verb, but it conveys a more passive meaning than “prevent.”